Samantha Brown's Game-Changing Tip For Finding The Cheap 'Off-Season' In Any US City

Many so-called "genius" travel tips or hacks simply don't cut the mustard. For instance, while it's true that there are a lot of effective ways to save money while booking flights, it's also true that the common internet tip of searching for flights in incognito mode to get better deals doesn't actually work. On top of this, no hack can gift you first-class tickets for the price of economy. However, this mind-bogglingly simple and effective tip from Samantha Brown, host of the travel show "Places to Love" on PBS, invites you to taste Michelin-star foods at a fraction of the price. This tip is game-changing because it is super easy and only involves tacking two words onto your normal online travel research. According to Brown in a post on her Instagram, "If you are looking for a more affordable time to travel, do a search of a destination and add restaurant week to that." 

This trick works because, as Brown explains, "If you don't mind cold cold or hot hot weather, you can save a lot and eat well by traveling during these weeks." Most major cities host a restaurant week event with that exact title or something similar, and these events are basically a time period when local establishments offer diners a special menu or interesting entrée at a reduced price. Heading to a participating city during its restaurant week will allow you to eat like a local while skipping the large crowds, prices, and wait times that plague popular places during the high season.

While Samatha Brown has tons of genius solutions for traveling on a shoestring budget, the beauty of this particular tip is that it's a win-win. The local economy and the travelers will enjoy your visit more during a restaurant week. In fact, holding restaurant weeks is a practice that dates back to New York City in 1992 when some local eateries cooked up a special menu to court delegates and media members at that year's Democratic Convention. In the decades since, NYC Restaurant Week has caught on as a clever way to stir up more customers. While speaking with The New York Times about Restaurant Week, Tracy Nieporent, the chairman of the restaurant committee of NYC & Company, said, "The reason we do it is it always generates a good volume of business when times are a little slower."

While marketers applaud the restauranteurs for coming up with a way to drum up business, frugal travelers like Samantha Brown realize that slower times mean better prices. This is because the best way to encourage people to go out, as it turns out, is deals. At the 2025 Winter Restaurant Week in Washington D.C., some restaurants served divine three-course meals for one-third of their usual price. Overall, restaurant weeks are the epitome of a great budget travel deal — high-quality options at the lowest possible rate.

Targeting a city during its restaurant week will work for more than just scoring great meals on the cheap. We checked the prices at The Westin New York Grand Central to see if restaurant week also brings cheap hotel rooms. During a weekend of the NYC Restaurant Week 2025 (January 24 to 26), hotel rooms were going for a paltry $195 a night.The price for booking a room of the same class at the same hotel during a weekend in September 2025 would be around $765 per night. Granted, we don't know exactly how this hotel's algorithm works — maybe they automatically charge more for bookings that far in advance. However, recently released data shows that the average price for a New York City hotel room in September 2024 was $417, according to CoStar via The New York Times. 

On top of great hotel prices, you may even find amazing deals on hot events like theater performances. Broadway introduced an entertainment spin-off of the event called Broadway Week, which takes place around the same time as Restaurant Week. During this period, you can get two tickets for the price of one to popular shows like "Wicked." While we might have zeroed in on New York City, you'll also find great deals in any city of your choosing during this event. You'll even find restaurant week deals in smaller, charming cities across the U.S. like San Francisco, Sedona, Dubuque, and Colorado Springs.